In a conventional product ordering system of the aforementioned kind, products are generally supplied from a production source to dealers according to the order in which the orders are place by the dealers. This product ordering system is advantageous in that it is possible to maintain fairness between dealers since products are supplied according to the order in which the orders are placed by the dealers and at the same time enhance dealers' willingness to sell the products since the earlier the dealers place orders, the earlier they can obtain products for sale, which leads to enhanced sales performance.
However, in the above conventional product ordering system, products are simply supplied in order of ordering, and hence so-called speculative orders are liable to be placed with a view to securing products, which can cause partially concentrated supply of products to some of the dealers. Depending on the product production capacity, there is a fear of increased delivery times of products to be supplied to the other dealers. In particular, when the products are automotive vehicles of a new model to be put on the market, orders therefor start to be accepted before the start of the sale thereof in order to enable the production of the new model to be boosted to cope with initial orders. On the other hand, dealers intend to secure as many vehicles as possible expecting orders from their customers since they are vehicles of a new-model. As a result, a large number of orders are apt to concentrate on the first day of receiving orders.
Under such circumstances, when the vehicles are dispatched to dealers in order of ordering, ones including many for speculative orders are dispatched at early times to dealers who placed their orders earlier, whereas the dispatching to the other dealers who placed their orders later is largely delayed. This causes an uneven dispatch of vehicles to the dealers, which is far from actual sales conditions. As a result, after the vehicles are on the market, some of the dealers have a large stock of the vehicles whose buyers are not determined for a long time, whereas in other dealers, although buyers of vehicles have already been determined, delivery times thereof are very long. This makes it impossible for the dealers as a whole to increase actual sales and the number of registered vehicles.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a product ordering system which is capable of properly limiting orders placed by dealers, without impairing dealers' willingness to sell, while preventing partially concentrated supply of products to some of the dealers, thereby making it possible to make uniform and shorten delivery times for the dealers as a whole.